Council Race Underway

It’s never too early to start handicapping City Council races, is it? At Western Mass Politics & Insight, Matt Szafranski looks into his crystal ball and makes predictions on who will—and maybe won’t—be running for Council this fall, using a peek into the various councilors’ campaign war chests to support his analysis.

One challenger we already know is in the race: Ernesto Cruz, who recently announced his candidacy for an at-large seat. In his official announcement, the 28-year-old Cruz talks about transitioning from working in insurance to community work:

“Being in the life insurance industry, I realized that my success was directly tied to the success of the community and the network I had. In other words, if my clients weren’t doing well there was no way for me to be successful. It was then that I realized in order to make a difference in the success of those people I was serving I needed to become involved in the community.”

Cruz also has experience working on other political campaigns; I believe I met him in 2011 when he came to an anti-foreclosure protest organized by Springfield No One Leaves/Nadie Se Mude as a representative of Jose Tosado’s mayoral campaign.

Cruz will kick-off his campaign with a free event on March 30, at 6 p.m. at the Cedars Banquet Hall. For more information on his candidacy, check out his campaign website.